Making Essential Backups¶
Making a NAND Backup¶
Important
A NAND backup is crucial to have, it's a full backup of the internal storage of your Switch and can be used to restore the device to a working state in case of emergencies. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP
Once the backup is finished, keep it somewhere safe. The best backup is the one you have but never need, and the worst backup is the one you need but never made. To save space, it's recommended to compress the end-result with a .zip
file or something similar.
It's highly recommended that you use an microSD card that is formatted to FAT32 and has at least 32 gigabytes of space free. This will still work on smaller cards, but it's not ideal.
Instructions:¶
- Enter RCM and inject the Hekate payload.
- If you use a modchipped Switch, you can simply just turn your Switch on with the Hekate payload renamed to
payload.bin
on the root of your SD.
- If you use a modchipped Switch, you can simply just turn your Switch on with the Hekate payload renamed to
- Use the touch screen to navigate to
Tools
and thenBackup eMMC
- Tap on
eMMC BOOT0 & BOOT1
- This should only take a few seconds, but if your microSD card is very slow, it may take around a minute.
- Tap on
Close
to continue, then tap oneMMC RAW GPP
- This will take a long time. Expect it to take between 10 minutes to an hour (or more, if your microSD card is very slow).
- On FAT32 microSD cards or cards that have less than 32 gigabytes of space available, the NAND will be split into 1 or 2 gigabyte parts.
- Hekate will stop producing these parts when it runs out of space. When this happens, do the following:
- Power off your system.
- Insert your microSD card into your PC.
- Move all files from the
backup
folder on your microSD card to a safe location on your PC. - Insert your microSD card into your Switch.
- Enter RCM again, inject Hekate again, and continue the backup by tapping on
Tools
>Backup eMMC
>eMMC RAW GPP
- Repeat the process until the NAND is completely dumped.
- Go to the top right and press
Close
>Home
- Navigate to
Tools
>USB tools
>SD card
and plug your Switch into your PC via USB. - Copy the
backup
folder on your microSD card to a safe location on your PC. - Once done, eject the
UMS
device safely from within your computer's operating system and return to hekate'sHome
menu.